Finally caught a keeper bass at Bluegrass

I've been fishing for crappie at Bluegrass since it was opened to the public and after they put the concrete launch ramps in. I figured out right away that they didn't want us taking LM bass out of Bluegrass or Loon Pit and wanted them to grow larger. With the 18" long size limit there were not too many bass caught that were actual legal keepers. But I found out right away that the lakes were full of crappie. Therefore I fished for the crappie almost to exclusion of other fish.


I was fishing for crappie last week in the shallows and had a nice 2lb 6 oz and 16" long LM Bass grab my spinner bait and take off. I was using a brand new rod and reel that I pickup up at Gander Mountain. A 6' 10" long ultra sensitive tip St Croix Triumph Rod and a Pflueger open faced spinning reel. I spooled up with some 6 lb test P-Line Floroclear fishing line. <---good stuff.

The bass was in very shallow water and there were lots of weeds along the shoreline. I was lucky that she headed out to open water and went under my boat. I noticed that I could not pull the line in and no line was being taken out after a short fight. The bass had somehow wrapped the fishing line around my motor's propeller. It was only wrapped around one time so I tried to unwrap it at first using the rod tip but didn't have any luck with that. I had been fighting the fish and moved to the back of the boat to raise up the motor so I could see the line wrapped around the prop. There was no way I could reach over and unwrap the line without falling out of the boat. Besides I was still holding the rod and reel keeping slight tension on the line going to the prop. I realize that the fish was still on the line and could not go anywhere as the line was still wrapped up in the prop. So I set the rod down and reached for the line between the prop and the fish. I grabbed the line and then bit the line in half with my teeth. I held onto the part of the line with the fish on it and hauled in the fish by hand. LOL It was not the biggest bass that I've ever caught but it sure was an exciting catch that I had to work hard to get. She was full of eggs when I caught her as I could see eggs coming out of her. I returned her to the water after taking some pictures.

I'd say that last week when it was sunny some of the female bass were doing some spawning or feeding up in the shallows.

Oh, Yea one more thing. She spit up a big eyeball of some kind. It was partically digested but it definitely was a big eyeball. At least 2 cm in diameter. I'm wondering what she ate with an eyeball that big? It could have been a crappie or a bluegill as they have pretty big eyeballs. I figured she might be chasing shad in the shallow too. There is a lot of Eurasian Millfoil in these pits and she was right on the edge of the submergent vegetation. And this is fairly close to some deeper water and a shallow flat. I've seen a lot of fish caught in this part of the lake. Some of my friends fish this lake a lot and they catch a lot of small bass there.

A whlle later I hooked into another fish that fought just like the first one. But this time the line finally broke at the knot and the fish got off after a short fight. I was trying to loosen the drag when the line broke.

BTW: I was using a small spinner bait with a squirmin squirt type tube body on the hook. These are some old wishbone style small spinner baits with the small silver spoon attached to the top arm with a swivel. I was using a Palmar knot to tied these one my line but after a while I got tired of trying to slip the spinner bait though the loop for the palmar knot and just tied the bait on with the inproved cinch knot. That was the mistake as that knot won't be as strong as a palmar knot. Thus I lost another fish.

Neither bass jumped. In fact they both just dove for deeper water. I never saw the second fish And I didn't see the first fish until I started to pull it into the boat by hand.

I lost my next to last bait in the second fish's mouth. So if you catch a nice bass with a spiKner bait hanging out of it's mouth and read this let me know. You can have the fish but I want the bait back. LOL J/k :) It's black and yellow in color on the tube jig.

I used these small spinner baits many years ago at the Gibson Power Plant Lake and also up at Patoka Lake when it first opened. It's a good bait for crappie and smaller bass. Just reel in back in really slow and let the bait do all the work. Fish attack it with a vengeance . I never really did understand how a spinner bait looked like anything live. Other than the flashy part the rest of the bait is not that realistic looking. But the fish hit it just the same. Who knows why. Perhaps it's a territorial type thing and they don't want anything foreign in their territory. Especially something noice and smaller than the fish. ;)